


An Alliance of Idiots

by moodiful819



Series: Cranky Saltmates [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Awkward Tension, Ben/Rose Friendship, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Finn/Rey friendship, Gen, Mentioned Paige, Minor Spoilers, Post-TLJ, Redeemed Ben Solo, Saltmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 04:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13263915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moodiful819/pseuds/moodiful819
Summary: She shouldn't be jealous that her boyfriend was spending time with Rey. They were best friends; Rose was probably overthinking things. She usually did. But she finds camaraderie in an unexpected source, and maybe things would turn out okay.





	An Alliance of Idiots

**Author's Note:**

> A response to i-am-thesenate's prompt on tumblr:
> 
> "Okay Someone needs to write a fic where rose and Ben become saltmates as they entrust each other how they sometimes feel insecure in their relationships with finn and rey respectively because they can’t help but feel a lil jealous over how close Finn and rey are"
> 
> Dedicated to her (whose AO3 name, I don't know)

It was around the third time when Finn pulled Rey away from their shared cafeteria table that Rose finally admitted to herself that there might be a problem.

The problem wasn’t with Finn. He was wonderful and sweet and caring as always.

It was with her. 

She should have seen it coming. Her boyfriend was–-is still a hero of the Resistance. His best friend was a Jedi and they’d apparently saved each other’s lives. Life debts were hard to come between, she knew.

And, as she was finding out, friendships were even harder to come between.

Slowly, she slid her gaze to her right where Rey’s partner had also become forgotten. At least she wasn’t alone, but she wasn’t sure if it was any better–especially when your table mate was the former Supreme Leader of the First Order.

When Kylo–-Ben. BEN.  **He was supposed to be Ben now** –-quirked a brow at her, Rose nearly leapt out of her skin. She was still trying to get used to Ben. The entire base was–but the entire base wasn’t usually sharing a lunch table with him.

Slowly, his mouth turned into a frown. He probably thought she was staring at her. She wasn’t. She was just flustered and confused because she didn’t know quite how to deal with this and–and–

The words shot out of her like a blaster bolt. “Do you ever get jealous of them?”

She might as well have shot herself in the foot. Uncharacteristically, she became mousy, but she felt way too out of her league, even for her. What was she doing, complaining about her love life to Ben? He was older, a stranger, (a kind of reforming prisoner???)–he had way more than enough to deal with between training his Jedi girlfriend and trying to fix the universe.

She could only imagine what her sister would say to her.

But if her sister were here, she’d have someone to talk about all this with. She’d have someone to tell that she was jealous and confused about her relationship with Finn and Paige would just hug her close and pat her head and tell her that she was being a knarf-tiller and she needed to tell Finn that she was jealous and they needed to talk about it if anything was going to change.

But Paige wasn’t here, and she was scared to tell Finn. Instead, all she had was a lunch table with Ben. 

And maybe not even that.

She cast a side-glance to see if he was still there. She tended to scare people off between her rambling and her stubbornness–-but Ben Solo–older stranger/possible-reforming prisoner/unwilling lunchmate–-was still hovering over his lunch tray, chin resting on the back of his hand as he absentmindedly held his fork. 

Maybe he didn’t hear, she told herself. She hoped he hadn’t–-though he  _had_  to have heard it. She was as loud as a marauding bantha-–but maybe he was ignoring it and mercifully giving her a way out.

Just as she was about to give a sigh of relief, Ben spoke.

“All the time.”

She swore her eyes were the size of the portholes on the escape pods. She couldn’t believe that Ben spoke to her, let alone admit he was jealous. She wanted to stammer-–her mind was certainly doing it.

But instead, she huffed and stirred her meal with mild derision. 

“I saved that dummy, you know.” She said it like a charm to herself, just like when she stroked the curve of smelt around her necklace when she thought of her sister, as if to remind herself of what she did. Of her place in his story. Their story.

But the knit of anxiety remained and she sighed again. “But maybe we’re the dummies?”

“Probably,” Ben agreed into his cup of caf, taking a sip before extending it her way. She slowly,  _slowly_  clinked her cup against his and they both took a wary drink. As she did, her eyes continually flit to Ben.

If she didn’t know any better, she’d think they’d just become friends.


End file.
